A bus transporting 300 evacuees from Mykolaiv - mostly women, children and people with disabilities - arrives in Odesa. Photo: NurPhoto / Contributor via Getty Images
More than 7.7 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion, the UN migration agency said Thursday.
Driving the news: The figure represents 17% of the Ukraine's population. The number of displaced people has risen 9% since the agency's previous assessment at the start of April, and 19% since its first assessment in mid-March.
- Women represent at least 60% of displaced persons in Ukraine, the agency said.
- More than half of internally displaced Ukrainians — particularly in the country's east — reported a lack of food, and 28% of families with children under the age of five said they'd experienced difficulties getting enough food for their children, compared to 25% who said the same at the start of April.
The big picture: “Women and children, the elderly, and people with disabilities have been disproportionately affected as they all represent a highly vulnerable group of people,” said António Vitorino, the director general of the International Organization for Migration, in the press release.
- In addition to internally displacing millions, the war has forced more than 5 million refugees to flee Ukraine.